MMA News

Tom Taylor - October 5, 2017

When Jon Jones failed a UFC 214 drug test, and the light heavyweight strap was returned to Daniel Cormier, the question of the next light heavyweight title challenger seemed to come down to two men: Sweden’s Alexander Gustafsson and Switzerland’s Volkan Oezdemir. In an effort to pick the next challenger for his reinstated title, Cormier took to social media to let the fans decide. Apparently, they landed on Oezdemir. From there, Cormier offered Oezdemir the title shot, and the Swiss knockout artist quickly accepted.

Justin Golightly - October 5, 2017

You can’t talk about the UFC’s featherweight division without Cub Swanson. He’s been one of the top guys at his weight for a long time. After fighting in WEC, he put on a six-fight win streak in the UFC. His most recent losses are to Max Holloway and Frankie Edgar — the current champ and the current title challenger — with four more wins straight pushing them into the past. Matter of fact, all his losses are former champions or fighters who have fought for the title. This is one of the reasons that, after his fight with Brian Ortega, he will not renew his UFC contract. “It’s a power move. Of course, I want to get paid more. The thing people don’t understand is that I’ve got to a point where I’m making good money and it’s enough to live on, but it’s not retirement money. Not even close. I’ve been doing this for 13 years and I’m in the prime of my career, but at some point it’s going to dip off and I’d like to walk away before I start having really bad performances with enough money in my account to make smart investments and do the right things. I just want that opportunity. [Max Holloway fighting Frankie Edgar] is the 20th title fight since I’ve been in this division. I’ve been in the top tier of guys my entire career. It’s a little frustrating seeing somebody like Frankie, who is great, get tons of title fights. I just don’t understand it. I wanted some leverage for that [in my contract]. I’m next. They’re always saying, ‘We can’t guarantee anything,’ and it’s like, c’mon, yes, you can.”

Tom Taylor - October 5, 2017

Over the last few years, Bellator’s heavyweight division has really come together, as the promotion has bolstered its roster with names like Cheick Kongo, Bobby Lashley, Matt Mitrione, Fedor Emelianenko, Sergey Kharitonov, Javy Ayala, Roy Nelson, and most recently, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. That said, the organization has not had a heavyweight champion since it stripped the undefeated Vitaly Minakov of the belt after a bevy of contract issues. Matt Mitrione is hoping that changes soon. The Bellator heavyweight star discussed Bellator’s empty heavyweight throne on the latest episode of BJ Penn Radio.

Tom Taylor - October 5, 2017

This weekend, on the main card of the anticipated UFC 216 card in Las Vegas, fan favorite heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis will take on perhaps the biggest test of his career in former heavyweight king Fabricio Werdum. When the cage door closes, Lewis is going to have his hands full, as Werdum is perhaps the greatest jiu-jitsu player in the history of heavyweight MMA. That said, Lewis isn’t particularly worried about his foe’s grappling. He’s just going to go out there and do what he always does: swing for the fences.

Tom Taylor - October 5, 2017

This Saturday, on the main card of the stacked UFC 216, former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum will step into the cage with hulking Houstonian Derrick “The Black Beast” Lewis. If Werdum wins this fight, he feels he deserves a shot at reigning UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, the man he relinquished the divisional crown to back in 2016. “I deserve (a title shot),” Werdum said at Wednesday’s UFC 216 media day (via MMAJunkie). “Stipe (hasn’t fought) for a long time. I don’t know how long, but he don’t fight for a long time. I think all three. Me, [Alistair] Overeem and Francis [Ngannou] can go for the title shot. I think maybe, maybe, if Derrick Lewis beats me (he can get one). But he doesn’t deserve it at this moment to go for the title shot.

Tom Taylor - October 5, 2017

Last night, we learned that fan favorite UFC welterweight contender Carlos Condit would be returning from a lengthy hiatus at UFC 219 this December 30. His opponent will be established welterweight contender Neil Magny. Shortly after this exciting booking was announced, Magny took to Instagram to share his first comments on it. Unsurprisingly, he’s pretty excited about the chance to welcome Carlos Condit back to the cage.

Justin Golightly - October 4, 2017

MMA Twitter and hardcore fight fans everywhere flipped out when they heard Carlos Condit was coming back to the UFC. He took some time off to make some decisions about his career after being submitted by Demian Maia at UFC Vancouver, but last month decided he was getting the itch. He tweeted at matchmaker Sean Shelby to get him a fight and it looks like that’s what he got. Carlos Condit will make his return to the Octagon to fight Neil Magny. Yo! @seanshelby what’s up big guy…? I’m wanting to fight in December or January… what say you!?

Justin Golightly - October 4, 2017

Now that the bout that we said was slated for UFC 218 is official, we can finally start drooling over Frankie Edgar fighting Max Holloway for real. It’s an incredible match-up and a true test for the new featherweight champion. Jose Aldo is the only man in the division who has ever beat Edgar, with Holloway being one of the only guys he hasn’t fought yet. It’s a fight that needs to happen and gets to happen exactly at the perfect time. The early odds released for the title fight in Detroit have Max Holloway edging out Frankie as the favorite. Per @MMAOddsBreaker, Max Holloway will open a -205 betting favorite over Frankie Edgar (+165) in their 145-pound title fight at UFC 218.

Jason Kindschy - October 4, 2017

BJPENN Radio is back tonight at 8PM ET/5PM PT with more great guests for your MMA fix! 8:15PM ET- Our first guest tonight is Bellator heavyweight contender, Matt Mitrione. Following his sensational finish over the legendary Fedor Emelianenko back in June, Matt is the prime candidate to fight for the vacant Bellator strap. We’ll catch up with Mitrione and discuss what’s next for him in his march towards a championship. He’ll give us his thoughts on the debut of Roy Nelson, the addition of Frank Mir to the roster, and what he thinks about the possibility of a heavyweight tournament with the promotion. Plus, much more!

Justin Golightly - October 4, 2017

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve gotten a tsunami of fight announcements for cards closing out the year. Back on September 14th, we let you guys know that a contender scrap between Justin Gaethje and Eddie Alvarez would be put on the UFC 218 card. It looks like our forecast has finally been officially confirmed by Mark Henry on Instagram. UFC 218 has quickly become one of the hands-down best cards of the year. Coach @MarkCoachmark13 confirms @CTaylor_96‘s report that @Ealvarezfight vs. @Justin_Gaethje will take place at #UFC218 (December 2nd) #UFC pic.twitter.com/furd2d5Gyi

Russell Ess - October 4, 2017

UFC Hall of Fame legend Matt Hughes is well on his way to recovering from his horrifying accident. In June, Hughes was involved in a crash when his pickup truck that he was driving was struck by a train while crossing the train tracks. Hughes was airlifted to the HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, Illinois near his hometown and was cared for by the medical staff.

Russell Ess - October 4, 2017

Tony Ferguson has the biggest fight of his life coming up this weekend as he is set to take on Kevin Lee in their UFC interim lightweight title fight at UFC 216. Ferguson and Lee are scheduled to headline the card with Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson set to defend his title and perhaps set the UFC record for most consecutive title defenses in history as he meets Ray Borg in the center of the Octagon in the co-main event.

Justin Golightly - October 4, 2017

While nothing is official, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson’s manager revealed that Johnson would be meeting with the UFC to discuss a potential comeback. This time, he’d be entering into the heavyweight division. The former two-time UFC light heavyweight title challenger just retired back at UFC 210 in April this year. Daniel Cormier thinks Johnson should have took a little bit of more time before decided to come back that fast and details why on the recent episode of his podcast. “Here’s the thing. There’s something that’s kind of bothering me right now. News that Anthony Johnson is coming out of retirement. First off, I feel like if he was going to retire maybe he should have stayed retired a little bit longer. Because when you do that, you come back this quick, it just kind of feels like ‘oh you were mad because you lost, so you just quit’. Right? It’s not even a six month retirement. So, it feels kind of like you were mad because you lost, and you kind of just quit. That’s not the way things are supposed to be, you know?” — Daniel Cormier on his Talk and Talker podcast. 

Justin Golightly - October 4, 2017

Michael Bisping is just a month away from fighting Georges St-Pierre to defend his UFC middleweight title. The fight went through many dates and delays, in part due to a very long negotiation process with company brass and an eye injury St-Pierre suffered. Back when everything was still up in the air, Bisping and St-Pierre had a press conference where GSP accused Bisping of being drunk. The champ admits he had some fun the night before on the latest episode of his podcast, because he was in Vegas and had no idea when he’d get to fight St-Pierre. He also launched an accusation of his own. “I’d had a heavy night before and Georges [St-Pierre] was taking pleasure in [mocking me for my behavior]. So f-king what Georges. I’m 38 years old and I’m in Las Vegas. If you’re man enough to fight me anytime soon, I won’t be drinking. When I’m training for a fight I’m very, very dedicated but of course, I’m not training for a fight because I don’t know whether it’s because Georges needs to clear the steroids out of his system before he enters the USADA testing pool. I don’t know what the reason is but that is definitely a potentially valid reason because you’ve got to get tested for six months before you come back and he did his best to delay it so maybe that was why. I’ve been tested twice in this training camp, and I guess they’re gonna’ give up because they never get a sniff of anything with me. Never. And it costs a lot of money to send those agents out here. I’ll probably get another busy talk to throughout the training camp. I want to know how many times are they testing Georges St-Pierre?”

Russell Ess - October 4, 2017

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a big fan of mixed martial arts and at one point in his life even considered pursuing a career in MMA. We’ve seen Johnson show love for our very own BJ Penn shouting him out while in Hawaii and wearing some Penn gear during training in the past.

Russell Ess - October 4, 2017

Former boxing world champion Paulie Malignaggi is still not letting his beef with UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor go. The two had a couple of sparring sessions together after McGregor’s team asked Malignaggi to help “The Notorious” prepare for his professional boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather. Their training relationship came to an end after Malignaggi felt he was “exploited” with photos that made him look bad by Conor and his team.

Justin Golightly - October 4, 2017

On Friday last week, Conor McGregor made his first major public appearance since his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. We didn’t learn much from the man, other than he has options open to pretty much fight anyone he wants to in his UFC return, but we already knew that. Out of the about seven names mentioned, Max Holloway was one of them. The “champ champ” took out time to praise Holloway and didn’t rule out a rematch. However, it’d have to be in the 155-pound division. “I sonned that young boy. I’m not mad at [Max Holloway]. He’s done a great job. He’s climbed up and claimed that featherweight belt. You see some fights, and so do the public, you see him go in there and you watch him win or lose and you watch how they act and how they carry on. He lost to me and he took it on the chin, he kept his mind frame sharp. Same with [Dustin] Poirier, he’s another guy who kept his mind frame sharp and carried on. [Eddie] Alvarez as well, he took it well – you’ve got to take it on the f-king chin.”

Tom Taylor - October 4, 2017

Paging Stephen Thompson, Robbie Lawler, Carlos Condit, Jorge Masvidal and Santiago Ponzinibbio. Just so you know, you’re all apparently on the hit-list of rising welterweight knockout artist “Platinum” Mike Perry. Perry took to Instagram to call out all the names mentioned above in a single post on Tuesday, promising he’s got his eye on all of them.